'Life and Times of Frederick Douglass ' Summary

Frederick Douglass published his highly acclaimed third autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, in 1881 and revised it in 1892. The emancipation of American slaves during and following the American Civil War enabled him to relate in this volume more details of his life as a slave and his escape from slavery than he could in his two previous autobiographies, which would have put him and his family in danger. It is the only Douglass autobiography to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, his encounters with several American presidents including Lincoln and Garfield, his account of the ill-fated "Freedman's Bank", and his service as the United States Marshall of the District of Columbia and as U. S. Minister to Haiti. This masterfully written book is all the more remarkable because it is the product of one who as a slave was denied the right to any schooling.